I submitted the first five pages of my manuscript to a contest that included obtaining feedback from “experienced writers”. Overall, one loved it, one hated it, and one thought it a good start that needed work. **headdesk**
There was, however, one specific sentence that garnered comments from all three judges:
“He may not be good with names, but he was excellent with timekeeping. Mr. Peters took pride in his reputation as someone who was never early and never late. He always arrived precisely on time and expected the same of everyone around him.”
Yup. For that specific segment, I received three specific comments:
- Judge #1: Thought it was completely unnecessary information.
- Judge #2: Wanted clarification on exactly what it meant, especially the phrase “everyone around him”.
- Judge #3: Loved it and thought it was the perfect amount of detail to describe Mr. Peters.
And it is at this point that all writers go find a wall specifically to bang their head into.
Chadwick has informed me that Jude #1 is most likely the most correct one, but he supposes I can also listen to Judge #2. And he is profoundly unhappy that, currently, I am leaning towards just going with Judge #3 and not changing a thing . . .
Of course, Chadwick might just be sore at me for not writing a thing the last 8 days. And apparently the fact that I have been sick with COVID is no excuse.
Forest Idylls 